The Malay archipelago : the land of the orang-utan ... - Wallace Online

XX.] AMBOYNA. 231aborigines of the country. Their language has still much morePortuguese than Dutch in it, although they have been in closecommunication with the latter nation for more than twohundred and fifty years ;even many names of birds, trees andother natural objects, as well as many domestic terms, beingplainly Portuguese.^ This people seems to have had a marvellouspower of colonization, and a capacity for imjii-essing theirnational characteristics on every country they conquered, or inwhich they effected a merely temporary settlement. In asuburb of Amboyna there is a ^dllage of aboriginal Malaj^s whoare Mahometans, and who speak a peculiar language allied tothose of Ceram, as well as Malay. They are chiefly fishermen,and are said to be both more industi'ious and more honest thanthe native Christians.I went on Sunday, by invitation, to see a collection of shellsand fish made by a gentleman of Amboyna. The fishes areperhaps unrivalled for variety and beauty by those of any onespot on the earth. The celebrated Dutch ichthyologist, Dr.Bleeker, has given a catalogue of seven hundred and eightyspecies found at Amboyna, a number almost equal to those ofall the seas and rivers of Europe. A large proportion of themare of the most brilliant colour.s, being marked with bands andspots of the purest yellows, reds, and blues ; while their formspresent all that strange and endless variety so characteristic ofthe inhabitants of the ocean. The shells are also very numerous,and comprise a number of the finest species in the world. The^lactras and Ostreas in particizlar struck me by the variety andbeauty of their colours. Shells have long been an object oftraflic in Amboyna ; many of the natives get their living bycollecting and cleaning them, and almost every visitor takesaway a small collection. The result is that many of the commonersorts have lost all value in the eyes of the amateur,numbers of the handsome but very common cones, cowries, andolives sold in the streets of London for a penny each, beingnatives of the distant isle of Amljoyna, where they cannot bebought so cheaply. The fislies in the collection were all wellpreserved in clear spirit in hundreds of glass jars, and tlie shellswere arranged in large shallow pith boxes lined with paper,every specimen being fastened down with tliread. I roughlyestimated tliat there were nearly a thousand different kinds ofshells, and perhaps ten thousand specimens, while tlie collectionof Amboyna fishes was nearly perfect.On the 4tli of January I left Amboyna for Ternate ;but two1 The following are a few of the Portuguese words in common use bj- the Malayspeakingnatives of Amboyna and the otlur Moluccan islands : rombo (jiigeon) ; niiio(maize) ; testa (furehead) ; horas (hours) ; alljnete (I'in) ; cadcira (chair) ; leniH> (haudl^erc-hief); ft-csco (cool) ; trigo (flour) ; sono (sleep) ; liimilia (family) ; histori (talk) ; vosse(you) ; mesrao (even) ; cufihado (brother-in-law) ; senhor (sir) ; nyora for signers (madam)—None of them, however, have the least notion that these words belong to a Europeanlanguage.